It is feared that this will lead to large numbers of comments being reported to social media providers or police as inappropriate, even if they were only meant jokingly or had no malicious intent.

The leader of the Liberal Democrats, Tim Farron, has compared the force to the Thought Police out of George Orwell's novel 1984 saying, “we need more police on the streets.”

The announcement comes as reports of hate racist and sexist abuse on social media are on the rise, with a surge of 42 percent, with a lot of it being attributed to Britain's oncoming exit from the European Union.